Under Pressure
by julypot
Summary: "Zuko knew he was a dead man. Katara would eventually snap out of her stupor and beat the living daylights out of him." Zuko's arguably failed attempt at an apology.


**Title: Under Pressure**

**Julypot**

**Summary:** **"Zuko knew he was a dead man. Katara would eventually snap out of her stupor and beat the living daylights out of him." Zuko's arguably failed attempt at an apology.**

**Notes: Rated M for sexual content, naturally, as it's inspired by the Cosmo article "The 15 minute orgasm"**

**Disclaimer: ATLA is the property of Nickelodeon and Viacom**

* * *

Smoke blew out of Zuko's mouth lightly as he let out an aggravated sigh, clearly frustrated. He and Aang had been training in the hot sun since dawn and even though Aang was plenty talented, he was clearly an impatient student.

Zuko tore off his shirt, wiped his forehead with the cloth, and threw it on the ground. The sun was high in the sky now. "You can't just keep changing your stance, this isn't airbending! I told you, you won't be able to attack unless your core is completely stable. Do it again, 50 sets, and I'm watching every one of them."

Aang grumbled as he repeated the attack, "I didn't think it was so bad."

"There's more to firebending than shooting flames. It's about control, precision, and discipline. Fire is a dangerous element, you of all people should know that, and _stop_ leaning on your right hip so much. You're not dancing."

"I like to dance," Aang pointed out while adjusting his stance. "Me and Katara are pretty good at some Fire Nation dances. We taught these kids some moves."

Zuko could see the waterbender turn her head slightly from afar. She always insisted on watching their training sessions, even though they required her to wake up well before everyone else. Zuko found most of the group of misfit kids gathered at the Western Air Temple to be alright, even somewhat pleasant. Sokka had been a bit suspicious of him at first until he brought the boy some spare game from the surrounding forest. Afterwards the two of them had bonded over a mutual love of swords, meat, and a bottle of fire wine that he had pilfered from the palace. But none of that mattered in the end because Katara was always around to watch his every move.

"They outlawed dancing when I was a kid, but my mother made me learn a couple dances before they passed the law." He walked over to Aang and guided his limbs to their correct positions.

"Really? Do you know the fire waltz?

Zuko frowned, "Forget about the fire waltz. Finish your last fire squat and then we'll spar." Zuko faced Aang and fell into a fighting stance. Aang followed Zuko's lead and bowed. Zuko waited patiently for Aang to make the first move. Flames criss-crossed the air as the two benders exchanged attacks back and forth. Zuko punched a line of fire at the young airbender when he heard Aang let out a surprised yelp—his pant leg had gotten caught in the flames of the literal cross-fire. His good eyebrow rose in surprise at Aang's frantic jumping and patting, "Put it out, put it out!"

"Aang, you're a waterbender, use water!" He didn't get a chance as Katara immediately rushed over from her watch post and put out the fire. Zuko walked over to Aang, concerned. "Are you okay?"

"What do you mean is he okay, what is your problem? You practically killed him!" Zuko saw Aang jump at Katara's sudden outburst.

"Katara," Aand spoke up, always the peacemaker, "I'm fine. I just forgot how to waterbend for a second. It's not Zuko's fault. No harm done, see?" He showed off his unmarred calf to Katara as proof.

Katara ignored him and continued to shout. "That's it, these lessons are over from now on. He's clearly not fit to be anyone's bending Sifu."

"You're being unreasonable," Zuko shot back. "You need to trust us and realize that you can't protect Aang forever. He has to learn how to deal with fire eventually. Besides, he gets injured all the time when he and Toph earthbend. I don't see you trying to end Toph's earthbending lessons"

_"I'm_ being unreasonable?" Katara scoffed. "There is no point in trying to learn from a guy that can't even decide what side he's on. We all saw what you did to your uncle in Ba Sing Se."

"Katara," Aang interjected. He turned to Zuko, but the firebender had already turned around and left.

* * *

Zuko retired to his bedroom early that night to meditate, but Aang came and found Zuko anyways after dinner. "I talked to Katara. She said we could keep practicing. I tried to get her to apologize, but I don't know if she will."

Zuko stretched himself out of his meditative pose. "I'm glad. I mean, we don't technically need her permission to do anything. It's just," he paused. "She still hates me so much, and she's right for it…I did betray her and my uncle. I don't know what to do about it. I don't think she's ever going to forgive me." Aang gave Zuko a thoughtful glance before sitting down next to Zuko on the bed.

"Hate is a strong word. Listen, I don't really know what happened between the two of you, but have you tried apologizing?" Zuko frowned, apologizing wasn't really one of his strong suits. He was more the brooding, ignore-it-until-it-goes-away types.

"Somehow I don't think that would help," Zuko said.

"You'd be surprised. Sometimes just letting someone know you're sorry can make a big difference." Aang got up to leave Zuko's room and on his way out Zuko heard him start a conversation with someone. It sounded like Katara. Sighing, Zuko continued to stretch. He wondered what his uncle would do in this kind of situation. Probably make some tea and have a feelings session. He heard the door open, it was Katara.

"Aang sent me over here to say sorry," Katara said.

"Oh," Zuko paused, taken aback. "Yeah, he told me he talked to you."

She stayed in the doorway. "I wasn't going to"

"I didn't really expect you to."

"No, I'm just here to keep Aang happy, but while I'm here, what I want to know is why you think I should ever trust you?" She scoffed when Zuko didn't say anything and walked into his room. "You know, people like you never change—you can say that you'll change, and try convince me, but I know you'll just keep making the same mistakes and make me feel like an idiot for even listening."

"Katara..." He closed his eyes and rubbed the back of his head. There was so much bad blood between the two of them. All he wanted was a chance to start over and prove himself to her, but he didn't even know where to start.

Katara looked at his face. His hair looked so different from the first time she met him. His short hair emphasized his strong jawline. Things were so much easier then, when she thought of him as just her enemy. But Katara didn't think she hated him nearly as much then as she did now—now that she felt like she really knew him. Suddenly he looked up and the gold in his eyes searched for her blue ones, "What I did in Ba Sing Se was stupid and horrible. I've spent so much timing feeling terrible—"

Katara cut him off, "_You_ felt terrible?" She walked over to him and pointed a finger at his chest. "Do you know how many times I've played that scene over and over in my head? Do you? I _hated_ you. I just kept wondering what would have happened if I had healed your scar. Sometimes, I thought that maybe you would have helped us even though I should have known better. I know that if I had wasted my spirit water on you, Aang would have…" Her voice broke off. She could feel the tears running stubbornly down her face.

Zuko stood in silence, ashamed. They were close. He could easily tell she was crying. He spoke up, "I know I've made a lot of mistakes and bad decisions and that nothing is ever going to make up for what I did, but—" he bowed his head in shame and stared at her feet through his bangs, "but you were one of the reasons I left to find you guys. You were just," he looked away again, embarrassed. "You were so _nice _in Ba Sing Se, and I was such a jerk, and…" he trailed off. He could hear her crying softly still. He _hated_ it when girls cried. He took a step towards her and wrapped his arms around her in a would-be hug. He leaned down and buried her face awkwardly into his chest. "What I'm trying to say is I used to stay up late at night thinking about what could have happened then too. I don't like the person I used to be, but I'm trying to change. Please, just tell me what I need to do to make it better. I'll do anything."

She rubbed her face petulantly against him. To an outsider it would have looked almost like an affectionate nuzzle until she shoved him aside and said, "Nothing. There's nothing you can do. Leave us alone, that's all I want."

"I can't do that. Aang needs someone to teach him firebending. I may not be the best firebending teacher out there, but for now, I'm all he's got."

"We'll find someone else," Katara said.

"Katara, the comet's coming too soon to look for another teacher. We're stuck in a temple in the middle of nowhere, and even if we left there are no firebenders out there that are willing to teach Aang. What do you want me to do?" Zuko exclaimed in frustration. "I left because I knew helping Aang was the right thing to do, so that's what I'm going to do."

"I don't like you," Katara said.

"You don't have to. You just need to trust me."

There was tense silence between the two of them. They had reached an impasse in their argument where neither knew what to do, but where something had to be decided. And then, without much thought, without much warning, and without any real reason, Zuko was the first to act. He calmly got up from his sitting position on his bed, tried to read the girl across from him for several moments, and then roughly shoved a hand behind Katara's head and kissed her.

* * *

The silence persisted as he kissed her.

It was a desperate kiss, but Zuko was desperate. He felt her whole body against him stiffen, and she let out a surprised yelp when he nipped at her bottom lip, but he propped his hands against her face and insistently pried her lips apart to explore her mouth. In shock, Katara felt as if she could do nothing, and then he felt her push him fiercely with her hands against his chest. Zuko ignored her and continued to kiss her lips. He hadn't realized until after the fact, but the desire he had to kiss her was almost unbearable. Now that he started, he didn't think he'd be able to stop. Eventually he ran out of breath and their lips broke apart with an audible pop. He watched her, panting hard. He could see her chest heaving with each breath, the gentle slope of her collarbone, and her swollen lips parted gently as if they had forgotten to close after the kiss. Thoughts raced through his mind but he could barely think. Katara looked up at him incredulously with wide eyes. He made a sudden realization that, in all probability, this feeling had been building up inside of him for some time.

He wanted her.

It wasn't that he only wanted her body. He wanted everything. He wanted to set things right between them. He wanted to please her, to make up for his stupidity, and, more than anything, to take her body so far that it would just have to make everything better. It didn't matter that he knew sex was nowhere near close to being a substitute for a proper apology, especially for a girl like Katara. What he did know was that he was terrible with words, but he was good with his hands. He could show her how sorry he felt and apologize until her body was almost broken and tortured with pleasure. He had already messed up so many times with this girl and they had both been through so much together. He wanted for once, just to get things _right_.

Katara snapped him out of his reverie. "Are you insane? What is the matter with you? Have you taken some cactus jui—" Zuko cut her off with another fierce kiss and shoved her back against the wall. She let out an accidental gasp when he pulled away and switched tactics by planting wet kisses on her neck. "Zuko, _what_ are you doing?" Katara tried to give him an angry look but it gave way to another when she closed her eyes and let out a small choked moan as Zuko sucked on her neck. She could feel his breathe shoot straight down her spine every time he exhaled. Katara tried to push her arms away from him, but his arms held her firmly down and the traitorous arching of her own back only drove her hips directly against his. She flushed when she heard him groan roughly against her ear.

Zuko's hands made their way up and down Katara's lithe form. A small whimper escaped from her mouth and her body jerked abruptly when his hands dug their way between layered cloth to cup her covered breast. Zuko knew he was a dead man. Katara would eventually snap out of her stupor and beat the living daylights out of him. In all honesty, Zuko didn't know if he'd be able to stop himself even if she beat him half to death until he showed her how sorry he was.

She finally gathered his face between the palms of her hands and forced him to look her in the eye. "What are you doing?" she repeated.

He looked away and bowed his head. His face was buried in the crook of her neck while the rest of his body trapped her against the wall behind her. "I'm sorry." It was so soft she barely heard him. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry… I know I'm an ass and that everything I do is wrong." Katara didn't say anything. He was too close. His presence surrounded her senses and his proximity, his scent, his voice, and just his general stupid Zuko-ness was fogging up her perceptions. She needed him to get away from her so she could think properly. Zuko leaned in again and kissed her softly on the lips once. "But, will you trust me?" While he said this, his hand snuck up her inner thigh and she could feel a knuckle graze her covered wet sex. Her body was betraying her but she didn't say anything. Katara felt the same feelings towards Zuko she always had. She hated him. He never failed at bringing out the fire in her personality. She could bend the blood straight out of him for doing this to her body and for shooting off so many emotions—except that she couldn't, not when he felt so good.

Instead doing what she ought to have done and attacking him with a block of ice, Katara closed her eyes and took a deep shaky breath. Zuko's hand hesitantly traveled up farther until he was cupping her sex, looking for any sign from Katara who almost forgot how to breathe. "Trust me." Zuko's voice pleaded one last time. "If you don't want this I—I'll stop, but if you'd just give me a chance."

The sincerity of his voice was what go her—raspy, vulnerable, and pleading. Swallowing, she looked away from Zuko's eyes and gave him a timid kiss. Zuko's surprise quickly gave way to relief and he brought a hand gently to her face and the two eased themselves into the kiss. Katara returned his ministrations tentatively at first, after warming up to him she pushed Zuko back and fought for a balance. One of her arms slung itself over his neck, while the nails of her other raked through Zuko's hair. Katara finally felt she had gathered some semblance of control when Zuko unexpectedly picked her up off her feet. Katara wrapped her other arm around Zuko's neck to prevent herself from falling and yelped when Zuko unceremoniously dropped her on his bed. Tearing off his shirt, he crawled up to join her.

Katara flushed red. Of course she had seen Zuko shirtless before, but she had never allowed herself to stare and she certainly never would have let herself touch. But when face to face with a shirtless Zuko she couldn't help admiring how defined his entire body was. If she was staring, Zuko ignored it and peeled off a layer of her clothing. Her top was already disheveled from Zuko's earlier attentions, but she shuddered when she felt the cool night air against her bare midriff. She blinked up at Zuko, unsure. "I don't know if I can do this Zuko."

"Trust me." Zuko kissed her forehead, "I won't make you do anything you don't want to." He kept his eyes on Katara as he undid her loose breast bindings until she gave him a slight nod. After her breasts were freed from her bindings, Zuko took a moment to admire Katara's figure. Her bronzed skin was blushing everywhere and her full breasts stared back at him while Katara fidgeted nervously. Her nipples were unabashedly hard and begging to be touched. He placed his mouth on a breast and sucked while his hand played with the other. Katara's vision blurred as she let out a hushed sound of pleasure. Suddenly impatient, he tore himself away from Katara's chest and tugged off her leggings. Her heady smell only enflamed his passions as he roughly turned Katara on her side, facing away from him. He then guided one of her legs up and hooked his underneath hers to keep it upright. Pressed up against her firmly from behind, Zuko knew Katara could feel his erection. He brought a hand to the crevice between her legs and outlined her sex with two fingers.

Katara let out an impatient whine against his hands. She blushed at how wet she was, but all embarrassment was forgotten when she felt what he did next. Tenderly, Zuko traced circles around a neglected nub at the top of her sex. She couldn't help but to let out an unrestrained moan at his actions. She was barely able to gasp out, "What are you doing?" Zuko didn't answer her. Instead, his fingers continued their careful tracing.

She closed her eyes, but she couldn't escape from the pure _sensuality_ of him. All she could do was feel his hands on her body as they continued this torture.

She moaned praise and pleaded, but his fingers were ruthless. They refused to give up their rhythm or ease away from the pressure building up inside of her. She was powerless against him. She pleaded him to stop, tried pushing and slapping away from him, and writhed underneath his grasp. She was sweating all over. "Stop," she pleaded again, louder. "Something's happening. _Please_, Zuko_._" Her hips bucked frantically to escape the overstimulation, but Zuko's arm tightened around her to keep her still and he kept up the constant and relentless pleasure. In fact, Zuko ignored her pleas and sped up his rhythm. Katara felt her body tuning itself towards an unknown precipice until, sobbing, her entire body spasmed.

Over and over, her orgasm hit her like tidal waves crashing on a beach. Katara lost all awareness. How much time had passed? Thirty seconds, five, fifteen minutes? It felt like an eternity to Katara whose moans filled the room. The pleasure was so powerful, Katara couldn't see or feel anything besides Zuko's presence. Over and over again the tremors continued to attack her body mercilessly and all Katara could do was try to ride out the waves.

When it was finally over, Katara could do nothing. She laid down for several moments trying to catch her breath, but her breathing refused to return to normal. When she tried to move, her body was attacked by another brief round of spasms. Although every muscle in her body opposed, she forced herself up and tried to gather herself. She shakily got off the bed, and looked for her clothing. All the while, Zuko stared at her with an unreadable expression on his face. When the last of her clothing was on, and she reached for the doorknob to leave, she heard him.

"Goodnight."

Pausing, she opened the door and left without a word. When it was closed she closed her eyes and stood still for awhile. Katara would not be getting any sleep the rest of the night.

* * *

**A/N Thoughts? I was toying around with the plot in my head after reading the Cosmo article "The 15 minute orgasm" one day and I finally up and wrote something. My goal was to get this out before Zutara month was up (I barely made it). If you're curious about the article, google it (who knows if it actually possible?). Feedback would be greatly appreciated, I have not written FF in ages and I'm not sure if I liked how this turned out. (I think my transition into the smut may have been a bit..abrupt :P). Happy new years everyone!**


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